NEW DELHI: In a far-reaching judgment, the Supreme Court has asked the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, to take fresh look at Article 44 of the Constitution and “endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”
Observing that “the successive government is till date have been wholly remission their duty of implementing, the constitutional mandate.
In their separate but concurring verdicts, in cases where Hindu husbands had ‘misused’ the absence of a uniform civil code to convert to Islam and marry a second wife without dissolving the first marriage, the judges made it clear that “second marriage of a Hindu husband after conversion to Islam, without having his first marriage dissolved under law would be invalid.”
The Apex Court said “the Government may also consider feasibility of appointing Committee to enact Conversion of Religion Act, immediately, to check the abuse of religion by any person. The law may provide that every citizen who changes his religion cannot marry another wife unless he divorces the first.”
Article extracted from this publication >> May 19, 1995
